


Shimmer and Glow

by marginalia



Category: The Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Aliens, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-03-21
Updated: 2003-03-21
Packaged: 2018-10-07 21:14:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10369569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marginalia/pseuds/marginalia
Summary: Written for the "Where's Elijah" challenge. AU.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "Where's Elijah" challenge. AU.

he always knew that they would come. one day it would happen. one day and the glittering wormhole would open up right there, wherever he happened to be. it would open, shimmering rainbows and silver, and he would step into it. he'd step in carefully and deliberately as if it was a choice. the appearance of control was always important to elijah.

he wondered sometimes how much they saw. up there. he'd never been really clear on the details. besides, he'd been down here so long that even the fuzzy tidbits had faded. at this point he was in it for the experience. try everything once except incest and folk dancing, that's how elijah tried to live. that's why he did _flipper_ , after all, to swim with the dolphins. intelligent creatures. so long and thanks for all the fish and all that.

he wondered how much they controlled. from there. watching. that high school alien movie, for one thing. they had to be laughing about that. and then he would flush crimson wondering exactly how much of that they had seen. if they had seen the dark haired boy and the marks his fingers had made on the perfect skin of elijah's hips.

even if they had seen it, it must have been acceptable, because no shimmering wormhole had appeared. just an assistant, knocking tactfully, reminding mr wood when he was expected back on set as he watched josh's glow fade.

of course. back then he hadn't wanted to go. earth was fine with him. he knew it wasn't exactly a normal life, the hurry up and wait of the film set, the premieres, the endless photographs and the screaming girls. the girls who loved his other worldly looks. his perfect skin and eyes and apparent lack of hormones. elijah knew that, and still he stayed. "for the experience" he said. "of seeking the glow" he thought.

when the call came for new zealand he said yes, because it was different, though he thought about saying no because it was for so long. he said yes, and he went, and he lived in a country that was the closest to home elijah had seen in two decades.

which made it somehow less surprising when he met -him-. another. the first one he'd met since leaving home. they hadn't known each other up there, but home becomes surprisingly important when you're away from it, and people you wouldn't have even nodded to on the street become your constant companions. so it was for elijah with orlando.

he wasn't even sure how he had known. he suspected the glow. but the glow had fooled him before, so he looked deeper, catching shadows dancing in orlando's eyes before he hid them away. orlando, for all his enthusiasm and lust for this earthly life, was careful too.

they took their time. read the glow and the eyes until they were sure. came together at last one night fortified by liquor and driven by loneliness. "you?" "yes." "me too." "i know." they came together, glowing madly. mistaking home for love. loneliness for lust.

_"what do you remember?" orlando asked him one night._

_"nothing" elijah replied. mostly the truth._

knowing glances followed them around the set, but none looked deeper. none ventured past the glow. all smiled bemusedly at the pranks. at elijah's uncanny ability to sleep anywhere. at orlando's inability to be subtle about anything.

_"is this what it looked like?" elijah asked._

_"it was quieter" said orlando. elijah nodded._

shooting ended. press began. no one absorbed the increased clove habit. the ever-shortening nails. the very human signs.

the glow around elijah began to shimmer.

_"just think, we get to do this again next year," said orlando, watching elijah trace the sun on his belly, lazy circles with his thumb._

_"maybe that will give me time to think of new answers," suggested elijah. "no, ian mckellan really is twice my height. yes, those were my real feet. but not my real eyes." orlando laughed. elijah did not._

he had gone right into filming again. this time in new york. new york didn't look like home. he was so tired all the time. elijah smoked between takes, gnawed at his fingernails, and waited to go home. to orlando and his shadowy eyes. eventually. it was an afterthought. elijah shimmered. he wondered if it would show up on the film.

_"is johnny?" elijah asked._

_"no," replied orlando. "though i had wondered too."_

orlando looked hard at the phone before setting it back down in the cradle. he sat down carefully. thought he could see elijah shimmer all the way across the country. people would think he was a falling star. they wouldn't be far wrong.

elijah pocketed his cell phone. shuddered and shimmered. walked slowly to his building, and took the lift up to his apartment. slipping in the door he shrugged off his jacket, stepped into his room, fell face down on the bed.

_"how much longer, d'you think?" orlando had wondered._

"none too soon," elijah muttered to himself. "none too soon." he rubbed his eyes with his fist, turned over onto his side. and stopped.

it was there. shimmering like he had been lately, silver, shot through with blue and gold. he blinked slowly. he had known they would come someday. he hadn't known they were waiting for him. maybe he was in control. maybe he always had been.

elijah stepped towards it and stuck in one foot. it swirled around him, warm and comforting. he reached in with his arm and some . .thing . . neither alien nor human pulled him in. he looked around him. the hole had failed to close behind him, and something in the back of his mind said that was his fault. something else said it was a good thing.

uncertain, he stood in the center of the room. place. thing. it was all wrong. it looked like a blue screen version of home. elijah snorted. the boys at weta would be shocked to see this passing as reality. he felt sure that if he stuck his hand out he'd touch wet paint. but wet paint reminded him of viggo and home, so he kept his hands in his pockets.

wait.

since when did home mean new zealand? the states? not here? elijah's legs went weak and he sat down on the drop cloth that was passing for ground. he covered his face in his hands as images sprang unbidden of dinner parties at viggo's and the photos he would take of elijah and orlando, of the nights out at the clubs, of liv laughing at the infamous red carpet embrace. of orlando. always of orlando.

 _you can't stay, you know_. the voice liquid inside his head. _you've been marked_.

elijah looked up, vainly seeking the voice.

_you're here because you wanted it. but this is all the further you can go._

elijah's fingers slipped beneath his waistband, involuntarily stroking the fellowship tattoo. "please," he whispered.

elijah felt the shimmer around him and the warmth dissipate. he shook his head to clear the fog.

"lij?" orlando's voice, coming from the living room. then he was knocked onto the bed by an armful of orlando. "finally."

***

"how long?" elijah asked.

"three months," orlando said. "but for you?"

"three minutes."

orlando hummed softly, his tongue skating down elijah's torso. "then why did they . ."

"why do you think?" orlando's tongue swirled around the elvish.

elijah smiled.

control.


End file.
